If you have ever been involved in the construction or sale of homes in the past few years, you may have heard about LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. This voluntary Green Building Rating SystemTM promotes the global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices. It is used widely in both commercial and high-end residential construction.
But in recent months, the use of LEED criteria has been increasing at all levels of development as contractors pursue the reputation of being an environmentally conscious corporation. In 2008, the LEED for Homes (LEED-H) rating system was introduced, creating homes that are energy efficient, as well as being more durable. By using less water and natural resources, these homes actually help the owners save money.
When builders adhere to using products approved for the Indoor Environment Quality standard, an important factor in LEED certification, homeowners receive significant health benefits. When contractors use low or non-VOC paints and adhesives, install laminate flooring instead of carpet, and incorporate an effective air exchange or ventilation system - all requirements in LEED construction and design - families can literally breathe easier.
Another money-saving benefit of living in a LEED-certified house is the increased use of solar power. Homeowners are able to generate their own energy and enjoy a significant decrease the monthly cost of utilities.
As consumers become more aware of how LEED features can increase their quality of living, they are more likely to ask their real estate agent for homes that have this accreditation.
So how do people know that home is LEED certified? Is there more than one way to attain this rating?
Buildings can be LEED Certified at Silver, Gold, or Platinum levels based on a point system. Performance ratings in eight categories determine the level of endorsement including: Indoor Environment Quality, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Site Selection, Site Development, Materials Selection, Residents' Awareness and Innovation.
The LEED for Homes certification system has been designed for the construction of affordable, new single family or low-rise multi-family homes, including condos and garden apartments. If older homes are undergoing extensive renovations, the construction process for these projects is also eligible for LEED certification rating.
A new level of pride of ownership has set in as the public becomes more aware of the benefits of living in a LEED-certified home. These homeowners know that they are doing their part for the environment, and often saving money at the same time.
For information about the Calgary real estate market, visit JoeSamson.com an excellent resource for Calgary homes for sale.
The phrase, "location, location, location" has become a cliché in the real estate industry, but that is only because it is true. No one wants to live in Cracksville. However, many people
who are looking for a home have the choice of many neighbourhoods where bars on the window are not in fashion and the question is, ‘should I choose the neighbourhood I like or the home I
like'?
A good neighbourhood is one thing, but a neighbourhood that's good for you is another. For parents, a ‘good neighbourhood' may be one with parks, good schools and low traffic streets. For
people who enjoy a lot of get-togethers with friends, a neighbourhood with plenty of nightlife, restaurants and other social opportunities may be a ‘good neighbourhood'. For pet owners,
proximity to a good veterinarian, dog park or pet daycare might be the ideal.
If you're looking for future investment, by all means purchase the best, less-than-ideal house you can in a great neighbourhood. If you feel that you really need that third bedroom, you
might take a home in a neighbourhood that is a little less convenient, but you might not realize the same amount of equity that you do in a home that is in a more advantageous location.
However, if your future plans make a house with certain features important, you may be willing to sacrifice. People who are planning to have children or bring people into their home may
require extra space, for instance, so a house in the best neighbourhood possible with 2 bedrooms can't compete with a home in a less desirable neighbourhood that possesses 4 bedrooms.
Are you a home-body or are you always on the go in the neighbourhood and city? For people on the go, a good neighbourhood is important - if you want everything at your fingertips, it makes
more sense to buy where such things can be had. If, on the other hand, you enjoy spending most of your time at home, you may not mind that there isn't a grocery store within walking
distance or a coffee shop nearby. Of course, if you have an eye to a future home sale, you might want to consider the things that a future buyer might be looking for.
Picking a home that is right for you is more than whether it has a certain amount of bedrooms or if the bathroom has a soaker tub. It's whether the neighbourhood suits your personality and
what your goals are for the property in the future. Pick your home and neighbourhood carefully for the maximum enjoyment of home ownership.
For information about the Calgary real estate market, visit JoeSamson.com an excellent resource for Calgary houses for sale.
Most likely, buying a piece of real estate is going to be one of your biggest investment in your life. You will certainly want to have a team of professionals working with you throughout the buying process. After all, you wouldn't want to cut your own hair or hire the cheapest doctor when you really need the best... Let's see who needs to be on the bus.
The Real Estate Agent
Your Realtor will play the most important role in helping you to find the right home. His job is to be the quarterback in the game. Some of the main parts of his responsibilities are:
Be sure to ask plenty of questions before settling for a Realtor to represent you. If you can, why not compare one Realtor to another? Find out their previous track records, how long they have been in the business and most importantly, how do their sales number compare to the average Realtor? Once again... I am sure that you wouldn't want to hire the average brain surgeon if you would need it, look for the best and minimize your risk.
When you are buying real estate, typically it won't cost you anything to have a Realtor represent you. However, before signing any piece of document, find out or read the print to discover if there are any obligations on your behalf.
The Bank or the Mortgage Broker
One of your initials steps is to get a mortgage pre-qualification in place. This piece of document will assist you a couple of ways. Firstly, you will know how much you can afford exactly and you won't be wasting anyone's time, including yours if the bank won't approve you for the mortgage.
Secondly, you can use it as a negotiation tool once you find the right property. Many home sellers are very skeptical of removing their properties from the market for a period of 1-2 weeks for you to complete your due diligence. If you have proof in your hand that you are very much so pre-qualified, than it helps to ease the edges during the negotiation process, and allows you to focus on things that might be more important to you.
You should definitely shop around a bit to find the best lending institution as there are many of them. As an example, here is a few of them: banks, trust companies, credit unions, pension funds, insurance companies and finance companies. Be on the lookout for the terms and the options they will provide.
Getting in touch with a mortgage broker may be a wise decision for you in order to save a lot of time. Mortgage broker don't work for a specific bank, rather they work for you and the best part is that the banks pay them. Their job is to find you the best lender with the terms and rates that will best suit the buyer.
The Lawyer
Many times there could be legal issues attached to the particular property that you are looking at buying. Your lawyer will make sure that before the purchase is completed that you are not going to have any building or statutory liens or charges or work or clean-up orders associated with it that you may inherit. Having a lawyer to compete the transaction sure gives you a piece of mind.
The Home Inspector
Home inspectors are doing this everyday for a living - identifying problems that may cost you a lot of money in the future. It's not even a question of you should do a home inspection on the property that you are going to purchase. Just like in any other profession, experience and reputation makes a huge difference when selecting the home inspector.
The home inspector's job is to point out any defects of the property and inform you of its current condition. He will inspect the following areas:
The Insurance Broker
Lenders will insist on having current property insurance in place prior to them advancing the mortgage funds. Your property will be their collateral for their investment or your mortgage. Property insurance will cover the replacement cost of your home, so premium may vary depending on its value.
The Appraiser
Quite often your lender will order an independent appraisal report to make sure that their mortgage is well protected. You may also order an appraisal's report in order to find out how much your property is worth and helps you to ensure that you are not paying too much.
For information about the Calgary real estate market, visit JoeSamson.com an excellent resource for Calgary MLS.
Gypsum board, wallboard, plasterboard, sheetrock they all mean the same at end of the day - Drywall. Through out North America this product is very widely used in residential homes and it's gaining more popularity throughout Europe as well.
The boards are made out of compressed gypsum sandwiched between layers of durable paper on both sides. Most commonly they are manufactured in thickness of half-inch, however some installation may require five-eights as a desired thickness. There are many other types of drywalls available on the market to withstand special environments such as bathrooms and other high moisture content circumstances.
An insider trick of the trade is to install the boards horizontally to minimize the amount of taped joints required. You can purchase drywall boards up to twelve feet in length, if possible try to purchase lengths that go from one end of the room to another. If your room exceeds twelve feet in width than of course you will have to add a vertical joint.
Shaping and cutting drywall is one of the easiest part of the job. All you need to do is use a straight edge and a sharp utility knife once you have taken your accurate measurements. Please note that these measurements don't need to be very tightly butted together. If you try to be too précised than quite often you will end up cutting the same board 2-3 times as your measurement ends up being too tight. In my experience, a drywall taper can easily fill gaps up to three-eights of an inch. Start your cut on the face of the board by placing the straight edge along the measured line and just simply pull the knife along the straight edge 2-3 times making sure that you have completely cut through the paper. There is no need to cut in to the gypsum as it will be explained in the next step.
Slightly pick up the drywall or slide a piece of wood underneath the larger board if it's a bigger piece and with a quick motion, snap the board along the cut line. After the drywall is snapped, bend it backwards and cut the paper on the back side of the board as well.
Typically you would want to use 1.25 inch drywall screws to hang the drywalls, some builders may prefer to use 1.5 inch screws on the ceiling for added support. From time to time, you may end up installing drywall over an existing drywalled wall, if that's the wall you nee to increase the length of the screws by the thickness of the existing drywall. No need dwell on this, but make sure that your screws are going into the studs every time.
More experienced drywall installers have special tools to assist them with their installation process. There are special electric drywall screwdrivers that have a special clutch built into them that will prevent you from over tightening the screws and penetrate into the boards deeper than it's recommended. These gadgets also come with an option of holding dozens of preloaded screws to speed up the work. If it's just a one time project that you are taking on, then probably there is no need for this kind of tool, a simple cordless drill may be just as effective.
It's recommended to install the drywall screws every twelve inches on outside edges and perhaps every sixteen inches on the middle. Be sure to keep the boards about half an inch off the floor to prevent any moisture from getting to the board, this is especially important when installed over concrete floors.
When it comes to installing drywall on the ceiling, you might want to line up a few of your friends to give you a hand with those pieces as it could weight close to 70-80 pounds per sheet. I would recommend you nail together two pieces of two by fours to form a T shape. Once you have lifted the board into position, just wedge the T-bar underneath one end, and start fastening the drywall.
The taping and filling is the most critical part of the drywall process. Many people have attempted doing it themselves in the past. I am sure that with proper practice and persistence you can master this technique, but I would always pass this process onto a professional who will guarantee you a smooth finish.
Prior to painting any walls, be sure to apply a coat of primer on the surface for best finishing results. If you were to skip the primer process, you are running the risk of joints showing after painting.
For information about the Calgary real estate market, visit JoeSamson.com an excellent resource for Calgary condos.
You are ready to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and make a commitment for 25-35 years of your life based on the advice you receive from your real estate agent... With any luck, you will make the right decision. We are very fortunate here in Calgary, Alberta to have a professional regulatory body (RECA) in place, but is that enough to trust virtually anyone with a real estate license? The truth is that there are several levels of quality, business style and most definitely competence.
You should be asking yourself the following questions: - does your real estate representative have your best interest at heart? But more importantly, are they even capable of properly representing you? There are some Realtors with the best intentions in the world, but simply they may lack the ability to properly represent you and the investment of your lifetime. Please read on to find out how to identify a true professional.
Quite commonly people treat others the way they would want to be treated. How about treating others the way they would like to be treated?
Real estate in general is relatively easy to get into, but very hard to make a living at. Competition in this industry is at its tops. On the Calgary Real Estate Board, there are approximately 5,400 registered Realtors and selling an average of 1,800-2,200 homes a month. This fierce competition to gain the clients sometimes brings the worst out of the agent... Some Realtors will do everything in their power to turn you into a client. Obviously this makes sense from a time management point of view because they would hate to be running around with unqualified clients who will just take them away from other important clients or perhaps from their family. But do you believe in "love" at first sight?
In my experience, buyers and sellers are only looking for some more knowledge in the beginning. They are sure thinking about buying a house in the future but maybe not right away. So why not educate the potential client first before asking for the order? The bottom line is that you need to tell your Realtor what your expectations are, and if he respects them be sure to hold up your end of the bargain as well. Remember, we are representing your needs, not ours - but it's a two way street.
You should very seriously think about what motivates your next real estate agent? Ask them the question - why are you in real estate? Are they really in the game to find the best house for you, for the right price... or perhaps they are just trophy hunting to be the "number 1" at the office for the month of July?
Isn't it amazing how many number 1 Realtors there are in any newspaper or on billboards? Also what's with these 20 years of combined experience if you hire us? Does it mean that there are 20 realtors on your team with each one of them being in the business for one year or they only have two Realtors on a team, one with 1 year experience and the other Realtor with an experience of 19 years and he is sipping pina-colada in Hawaii somewhere? Obviously someone is not telling the whole story.
The truth is that, if a top-producing agent was customer centric vs. self centric and only interested in your needs, then perhaps they would focus on educating their future clients and constantly feeding them knowledge, rather than telling you how many houses they sold in the past.
Most of us think that the more experience is better and practice makes perfect. A couple of summers ago I have decided to take some golf lessons. My instructor asked me to show him my swing. So there I was on the driving range and I squared up to the ball and I think I had the best shot of my life. My instructor said that it was the best shot he had seen in a long time... then he went on explaining that it was a miracle that I was even able to hit the ball with those grips and stand that I have. It wasn't until some time after this golf lesson that I had my "aha" moment. You see practice only pays off if you practice consciously. I could have hit that ball hundreds of times over and over, but if I am hitting the ball the wrong way for the rest of my life, then I am never going to improve.
The most important point here is that if there is anything that your Realtor doesn't know, it will potentially hurt you in one way or the other.
The average age of Realtors out there is just over 50 years. More likely many of them have received their training over 20 years ago. Well, things have changed.... a lot. Be sure to ask your next Realtor about his educational history. Similar to the information technology, this industry is changing on a daily basis and you need to make sure that your representative is on top of his real estate game all the time.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of Realtors for you to choose from. I greatly encourage you to look beyond what people tell you in their flashy advertisements or what's printed on their business cards. Ask lots of questions before you decide, and objectively look at this person for his motives. Good luck with the rest.
For information about the Calgary real estate market, visit JoeSamson.com an excellent resource for Calgary MLS listings.
Calgary Real Estate Company providing Complete Realtor Service for selling or buying real estate in Calgary Real Estate market and the surrounding areas.
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